Dancewalk – Retroperspectives

My name is Alizée
Let me offer you a danced walk on the spot
A physical, poetic and audio-visual analysis
Of this activity we call Dancewalk
In echo to the images around me
Of the 850 kilometers danced throughout the world since 2015

The primary intention in Dancewalk – Retroperspectives was to present a video compilation of the highlights of the Dancewalk project, with someone on stage who could physically and mentally link the images, story and movement. The project then became a theatre spectacle, a full  performance, thanks to the distinguished presence of Alizée Sourbé. Dancewalk is dance travelling throughout the world. It is a geographic occurrence of body and dance, an activity where walking becomes dancing, where dance keeps moving over several kilometres and for several hours through a city or a landscape. The Dancewalk has been performed by Foofwa since 2015 in various locations and contexts, sometimes with other professional dancers or with workshop participants, and with the invaluable collaboration of local musicians. Paradoxically, Dancewalk – Retroperspectives is an indoor, local, on-the-spot dancewalk, a dance piece designed for the stage. It is an analytical and historical account of the 850 kilometres of dance performed throughout the world over 50 dancewalks. On stage, surrounded by a vertical and a horizontal video projection, a solitary dancer, Alizée Sourbé, mirrors the audio-visual dancewalks carried out in the public space by Foofwa d’Imobilité and others. Her presence offers a counterpoint to that of Foofwa on the videos. Alizée dancewalks on the spot for one hour, echoing some of the movements in the videos while showcasing the bare essence of the dancewalk through its coordination in a very kinaesthetic and clear way. Furthermore, she gives snippets of historical information on the various dancewalks in English as well as poetic analyses in French. Through this performance the audience travels the world together with the participants: musicians, dancers, amateurs, artists, professionals, children and all sorts of people in 34 regions and 11 countries (Switzerland, France, Italy, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Russia, Iran, Mali, Burkina Faso, South Africa, India and China).

“I was quite puzzled about how this experience would be translated on stage, and it’s wonderful! Congratulations to the performer who follows it to the end.” Olivier Stora, dancer and Head of Development of Cultural Projects

“Taking this project to the stage is no easy task and I find it works really well. It’s the history of the Dancewalk, and with the video projection installation, Alizée’s presence and Foofwa’s absence from the stage, and his presence in the footage, as well as the story, I find it all very convincing.” Olivier Kaeser, Joint Director of the Swiss Cultural Centre, Paris, from 2008 to 2018

Notice: The technical rider for the dance piece is quite light and simple, as our aim is always to adapt to the venue and to the conditions of the theatre. For instance, Dancewalk – Retroperspectives has been translated into Russian and adapted into German. Each new series of performances is subject to an update, either because new Dancewalks have been added to the video, or because Foofwa wants to add a few specific words in relation with the local context.